It is June 2020. Nick Cave walks into London’s Alexandra Palace alone. He sits down at a grand piano in the middle of the room and plays 22 career-spanning songs for almost 90 minutes. That was the show. This is the record. With its recent release, I have spun it only one time. It is spare and powerful. And it is bound to climb this list and to be an important part of his formidable canon.
Important footnote: ever the artist's artist, Nick Cave's third act has been a staggering aesthetic achievement. At 63, he is better than ever and his longtime collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis has recently produced some of the most soul-searing music they have made together. Since turning 50, his four-album run reached riveting heights on Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen, their vivid lyrical and emotional intensity burning with spirits and desire after the tragic death of his 15 year-old son. The songs are some of the best I have ever heard, daunting to visit but impossible to shake off.
He is a minor prophet from the badlands, baritone shaking with fierce defiance, unearthing truths and staring straight into the glint of dread and loss, broken but unbowed.
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